Monday, December 04, 2006

Hollywild Here We Come

The gymnastics meet was 4.5 hours away from where we live, right along the NC/SC border. Shannon came to watch Em from her new house in Greenville, SC and she recommended taking the kids to Hollywild to see the Christmas lights and go through the enchanted forest. So the level 5 team set out for SC and headed to Hollywild. (kinda sounds like we made the American Idol finals huh?)

The kids had a blast. You load as many people in a car that you can and drive through a 100 acre park with lions, bears, leopards, and other wild animals (they are in their own fences) to see thousands of holiday lights.Some of the lights during the drive through the park. Lights on the lake.

Then you drive into the "enchanted forest" and park your car. Inside the enchanted forest there are hundreds of deer, along with some donkeys, zebras and buffalo. These animals will come right up to the car and eat seed corn out of your hand! It was amazing.Deer eating out of Shannon's hand. One of the herds of deer inside the enchanted forest.

Some of the girls waiting for deer to come eat.

Emily and Alex looking for the deer outside of their car. (as you can tell Shannon and I were crowned the toddler car. We didn't get any of the cool older kids with us. Just Sam and David)

After you leave the enchanted forest there is a petting zoo where you can feed milk to the baby goats, feed camels and feed the largest cows I have ever seen (they weighed 3,600 pounds!!)Sami feeding a baby goat!Giant cows from Africa.

Needless to say if you ever make it to South Carolina around Christmas time I recommend making your way to Hollywild. Especially if you have young kids. This is what they will look like afterwards.